Abstract
Covid-19 has flared a match of accusation between U.S. and China. Both of the nations have alleged each other for the origin of the virus and the incompetence to contain it within the respective national boundary. The allegations have emerged at a critical period when the virus has infected the entire global population. The study identifies a political discourse, that is, ‘Lab origin theory’ out of these allegations and investigate the form, structure, and pattern of language in use following the methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis. The article contends that these allegations are based not on facts but on conviction, opinions, and beliefs which are expressed in the ‘spin’ or turn of retaliatory responses. Forming a series of exchanges these allegations promote certain truth-claims which are, in fact, subjective interpretations and hypothetical assumptions of the origin of Covid-19. The claims of ‘Lab origin’ are established with certain linguistic strategies and symbolic models, and their nature can be only understood with the phenomenon of Post-truth. The concept of Post-truth has been developed against the backdrop of controversial as well as political events of Brexit vote and the U.S. presidential election in 2016. Like these events, Covid-19 is an occasion of Post-truth and its Lab origin theory is a compromise between fact and belief.
Highlights
The origin of Covid-19 has remained controversial (Conforti et al, 2020; Beaumont, 2020)
Senator Tom Cotton and President Donald Trump in the U.S have asserted that Covid-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China while Ambassador Cui Tiankai and Director Lijian Zhao of China have suggested that the virus has spread from a U.S.-based lab through the U.S army to Wuhan
The Lab origin theory is a mental model based on the controversial statements by Senior Cotton and President Trump of the U.S and Lijian Zhao and Cui Tiankai of China
Summary
The origin of Covid-19 has remained controversial (Conforti et al, 2020; Beaumont, 2020). While the scientific investigations are yet to offer a unanimous, objective, and rational explanation of the origin of Covid-19, Senator Tom Cotton and President Donald Trump of the U.S and Ambassador Cui Tiankai and Director Lijian Zhao of China have delivered speculative statements over it. In the absence of verified and acclaimed factual evidence, their statements are subjective and reveal the objectionable nature of truth despite being asserted or confirmed by the first-person speaker itself. In these statements, these eISSN: 2550-2131 ISSN: 1675-8021. Since personal belief and conviction can only be expressed through rhetoric and specific use of language, the study examines the form, structure, and character of the discourses to reflect on the [post] truth in the lab-origin theory of Covid-19
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